Month: July 2015

by William Skink

There is an assumption among those supporting stricter gun control policies that the steady stream of gun-related tragedies will eventually translate into public support for policies that restrict access to firearms. That assumption is wrong, according to this Pew Research data from 2014:

For the first time in more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys, there is more support for gun rights than gun control. Currently, 52% say it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while 46% say it is more important to control gun ownership.

Around the same time this survey data came out, Markus Kaarma killed a German exchange student in his garage with a shotgun. For one Missoula politician, this tragedy was a perfect opportunity to take a shot at the Castle Doctrine:

Less than 24 hours after a German exchange student was shot and killed inside a Missoula garage, a local legislator proposed a bill changing the language of Montana’s “castle doctrine,” the law justifying the use of lethal force in defense of an occupied structure.

Before details of this particular tragedy were even known, Rep. Hill rushed to capitalize on it by trying to reverse what Gary Marbut accomplished in 2009 when he successfully had specific language stricken from Montana’s self-defense statute. From the link:

Before that revision, Hill said, Montanans still had a constitutional right to defend their home, so long as they believed lethal force was necessary to stop an intruder who was entering the residence in a “violent, riotous, or tumultuous manner.”

That language was removed in 2009 at the request of lobbyist Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association. The bill was carried by Rep. Krayton Kerns, R-Laurel.

“Marbut basically changed it to shoot first and ask questions later,” said Hill. “Before 2009, a person had to exhibit some sort of violent, riotous or tumultuous behavior. Now that he’s removed those terms, you could shoot a wayward trick-or-treater. It lacks common sense.”

Actually, if we want to apply common sense, one would have to acknowledge that criminality doesn’t always approach its targeted victim in a violent, riotous, or tumultuous manner, like this gangsta wannabe. Removing that language doesn’t seem unreasonable.

Ultimately Rep. Hill’s attempt to take advantage of this tragic death evaporated when the criminal justice system did indeed find Kaarma’s actions to be criminal. He was convicted and is currently incarcerated. The Castle Doctrine defense didn’t work.

Gun control, as an issue championed by Montana Democrats, also won’t work. It might get individual politicians a few flashy headlines, but the trend is heading in the opposite direction.

Why?

Because people don’t feel secure.

Unpack that however you like. Some of it is harsh economic reality, some of it is media hype. Or maybe it’s the heat:

After being stuck inside all winter, many people anxiously await the arrival of the warm spring season weather. But, there are some who dread the potential increase in crimes caused by rising temperatures.

Tracy Siska, executive director at the Chicago Justice Project, says there is a correlation between rising temperatures and violent crimes.

“Violence increases, especially street violence, muggings, assaults, battery,” Siska says. “Across the boards most crimes increase.”

Siska speculates that the spike in crime may be due to the increase in the number of interactions that people have with one another during the warmer months. Warmer weather can bring together potential wrongdoers, victims, and belongings all in the same place.

Whatever factors are at play, the end result is more people contemplating and procuring the means of using lethal force to defend themselves. I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing, nor am I totally enthused to be a part of it, but the experiences I’ve had the past few years have changed my thinking on personal defense.

From what I’ve been able to gather, that thinking is rather popular in Montana. As Montana Democrats work on their laundry list of issues to address, gun control might not be a good one to invest much political capital in.

By JC

Hot on the heals of Skink’s previous post on the shenanigans of the Montana Dem Party, we have another prime example of the Dem party wanting to tinker with picking the candidate before the public has a chance to weigh in.

Yesterday, Missoula County Democrats met to begin winnowing down the slate of candidates to replace Missoula County Commissioner Bill Carey, who is retiring. While Carey’s retirement raised more than a few eyebrows on its own, we’ll leave Bill to his retirement without inspecting the ghosts in his closet…

In a parody that uncanningly plays out what was going on at MT Cowgirl with the Mt Dems picking a new party leader, and the governor’s office while picking the winners loser (John Walsh) to finish out Senator Baucus’ term and run as an incumbent, Missoula County Dems seem to be losing touch with their history and their base.

5 candidates submitted applications to fill out Carey’s term. Of the 5, only one — Jim Parker — committed to being a placeholder candidate and to not run for the office. Missoula County Dems advanced 3 candidates to the two remaining County Commissioners to pick a replacement. Fortunately, the Commissioners have the choice between Parker and former City Councilwoman Stacey Rye. Missoula political newcomer Chantelle Gaynor was the third candidate chosen by the straw poll, but my sense is that the Commissioners would choose Rye, a political known, over Gaynor, a newcomer. You can read up on the bios about the applicants here.

Now where this gets interesting, outside of the obvious problem of two County Commissioners picking a candidate that could act as an incumbent and theoretically garner an advantage (how’d that work out for Walsh?), we get to look at the eviction notice that Skink and I received at 4&20 Blackbirds last month from Jay Stevens: Continue reading “Montana Missoula Democrat Insiders Not Acting Very Democratic”

by William Skink

Montana Democrats: Party of the People. That’s what it says under a Cowgirl post titled Adams Backs Bruce in Unlikely Campaign for MDP Chair.

The title of the post speaks volumes about the anti-democratic inclinations of Democrat party politics in Montana. Instead of welcoming competition and debate, the online mouthpiece for the MDP, Montana Cowgirl, is trying to undercut Louise Bruce’s run for chair by bashing Dirk Adams and dredging up the gripes from the last election cycle:

A woman named Louise Bruce has announced that she is running for Chair of the Montana Democratic Party. The announcement was actually made by one of her backers, the former candidate Dirk Adams, who ran for Senate and lost to Amanda Curtis in the shortened Democratic primary. Adams has sent an email out, criticizing the current chairman Jim Larson, and announcing his support for Bruce. He cites her 30 years of organizing and an assortment of other activist work.

Of course the leaders of the party would prefer to keep the focus on Republican in-fighting and avoid any semblance of democracy cropping up within their ranks, lest it be similarly exploited by Republicans. But the way they are going about it—dismissively referring to Bruce’s campaign as “unlikely”—only ensures the Democrat in-fighting will be worse than it would be if competition and debate were embraced, instead of this pathetic attempt to suppress and distract. Here’s more from Cowgirl:

Adams’ email (predictably) trashes the “operatives” and “insiders” that he says control the party. We should remember, however, that Adams has an axe to grind, having convinced himself that “the party” “orchestrated” Amanda Curtis’s nomination, when in fact it was an open election.

We often hear this charge from people who lose primaries, that the fix was in, that the election was rigged in their opponent’s favor by The Party. It’s silly nonsense.

Beyond that, and more to the point, Larson will likely receive the endorsement of both Nancy Keenan (whom Adams praises in the email), and Steve Bullock. Which means that Bruce will be a long shot.

Silly nonsense? Um, no, it’s called politics, where operatives and insiders absolutely control the party, as evidenced by the very Cowgirl post dismissing this woman’s campaign by focusing on the man with an axe to grind.

In this attempt to head off Bruce at the pass, the Democrat insiders that run Cowgirl reference endorsements that haven’t even happened yet, saying it’s “likely” Bullock and Keenan will endorse Jim Larson. I guess we just have to take the anonymous “Cowgirl” blogger at “her” word, no matter how presumptuous it is to be speaking for the Governor.

In the comment section of the Cowgirl post, not every Democrat is falling in-line with this undemocratic attempt to kill Bruce’s campaign. Here are a few highlights:

Turner: My good friend Louise Bruce will make an excellent chairperson. “A woman named Louise Bruce” is an odd way to begin talking about her — as though she’s some obscure figure. Louise is very well known by Montana Democrats and is highly regarded by people of all political stripes.

James Conner: Louise Bruce is a good woman who would make a fine party chair. Conservationists especially should give her serious consideration.

Pete Talbot: In retrospect, after reading a few more comments, the headline “Adams Backs Bruce In Unlikely Campaign For MDP Chair” is disingenuous. Adams should’t be the focus of this campaign and Louise Bruce is still a contender. It’s over two weeks until the convention and things could start getting lively. Democrats should embrace the debate.

Brigham: How has Larson done a good job?

He lost a senate seat Dems have held basically forever. He risked MDP’s tax exempt status with his illegal fraud concerning the endorsement of John Lewis (who was overwhelming rejected by the voters for good reason). Dems underperformed in legislative races during the key first cycle after redistricting. Candidate recruitment in 2016 is a complete disaster, with no viable candidates running against either statewide Republican incumbent running for reelection. There’s no excitement for MDP, it’s just a smaller and smaller group of corrupt stooges plundering the grassroots for profit.

Jim Larson has been a disaster as MDP Chair. His overwhelming corruption is why fewer and fewer voters identify as Democrats. There needs to be serious reform of the MDP, which begins by throwing out the bums who illegally bossed the 2014 primary. The culture of corruption under Jim Larson needs to end.

Throw the bum out!

If Democrats in this state want to win elections they need to move beyond pointing fingers at Republican crazies, put aside unpopular wedge issues that are only popular in liberal enclaves like Missoula, and embrace Democratic principles as it applies to their own party processes.

Otherwise voters will continue staying home, and Democrats will continue losing.

by William Skink

it’s the end of the night
and the kid in the backyard
is digging in his heels

the stern voice doesn’t work
the countdown doesn’t work
he goes dead wood on me,
won’t budge—

then I remember my wife’s use
of mountain lion
when he won’t progress on a trail

mosquito, I say
and he scrambles up,
runs inside

this is how they run the world,
I think

before taking my tired bones
to bed

by William Skink

I think it’s more productive to look at the outcomes than it is to examine events like the Chattanooga shooting. Why? Because Chattanooga is another rabbit hole in the crisis actor genre that sees these events as staged, and the American public is no where near being able to handle that possibility.

Some people may be inclined to wonder how one of the victims of the shooting looks exactly like Lance Cpl. Larry L. Wells, who was reported by the Washington Post to have been killed August 6th in an attack in Najaf, but most won’t.

Instead, look at the outcomes: ramping up fear over ISIS as a domestic threat, providing a reason to arm personnel at recruiting centers, and giving Wesley Clark an opportunity to say this (Zerohedge):

If these people are radicalized and don’t support the United States, and they’re disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principal that’s fine, that’s their right. It’s our right and our obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.

Just let the weight of that quote settle in for a bit.

If that’s a little too heavy for a Sunday morning, there is a very bizarre story coming out of LA worth reading about.

Here’s the basic outline of what’s being reported: A mysterious guy who claims to work for clandestine government agencies dies in his car, and his fiancé decides to leave him in his car outside his house because she believes his handlers will come and get the body, but they don’t and he sits rotting in his car for 2 weeks. When his death finally is reported, authorities find 1,500 guns, other weapons, and 230,000 dollars in cash in his home.

Oh, and his fiancé also thinks her guy is an alien-human hybrid sent to save the human race.

Have a nice Sunday.